Tag Archive | "oakland"

BALTIMORE — Returning to M&T Bank Stadium for the first time in nearly a month, the Ravens welcome the struggling Oakland Raiders to town as they try to continue their league-best 14-game winning streak at home.

The Ravens are 4-0 all-time against Oakland in Baltimore and own a 5-1 overall edge in the regular season series. Of course, Baltimore also defeated the Raiders in the AFC Championship to advance to Super Bowl XXXV during the 2000 season.

Despite being listed as questionable, defensive tackle Haloti Ngata and starting guards Marshal Yanda and Bobbie Williams are active against Oakland. It will be interesting to see how limited Ngata might be after admitting earlier this week that knee and shoulder injuries are hindering his effectiveness.

With Ngata banged up and defensive end Pernell McPhee out for the second straight game, defensive linemen DeAngelo Tyson and Bryan Hall are active and will play roles in the defensive line rotation.

As we learned on Friday, the Raiders will be without their top two running backs as Darren McFadden and Mike Goodson are both sidelined with high ankle sprains. Pro Bowl defensive tackle Richard Seymour is also out with knee and hamstring injuries.

Oakland will also be without Khalif Barnes, who is sidelined with a groin injury. Willie Smith has struggled immensely in his place, so the Ravens may try to line up rush linebacker Terrell Suggs on the opposite side to see if they can get a more favorable matchup in making Raiders quarterback Carson Palmer uncomfortable.

The Ravens are wearing purple jerseys and white pants while Oakland is dressed in white tops and silver pants.

Looking to win their 15th straight regular-season game at M&T Bank Stadium, the Ravens welcome the Oakland Raiders to Baltimore on Sunday.

Here’s what to expect as the Ravens try to improve to 6-1 all-time against Oakland in the regular season …

1. Ray Rice will receive his 20 carries, but he won’t have a Martin-esque game against the Raiders. Oakland’s 22nd-ranked run defense has been under fire after allowing Tampa Bay rookie Doug Martin to rush for 251 yards last week, but the Raiders entered Week 9 allowing an average of 102.1 yards per game on the ground, which would rank 11th in the league right now. Rice may eclipse the century mark, but the Ravens aren’t going to go run-happy based solely on what happened against Oakland last week and will give quarterback Joe Flacco plenty of opportunities using play-action fakes against a group that might overcompensate to defend the run. Overall, the Raiders will sure up their tackling woes from a week ago to put forth a better showing against Rice.

2. Carson Palmer will throw it 50 times against the Baltimore defense. Much has been made about the injuries to Darren McFadden and Mike Goodson, but the Raiders have ranked 31st in the league in rushing yards per attempt (3.6) with those running backs this season. Even against the Ravens’ porous run defense, Palmer will try to throw his way to victory against a pass rush that’s provided little punch (13 sacks). Projected starting running back Taiwan Jones won’t be much of a factor on Sunday, but he won’t receive the opportunity to be one as the former Bengals quarterback will be icing down his shoulder after the game.

3. The Ravens will score a defensive touchdown. The Raiders will have success through the air as Baltimore won’t be able to make Palmer uncomfortable in the pocket consistently, but the Ravens will find an opportunity to cash in against a one-dimensional offense at some point in the second half. I’ll go out on a limb and predict Jimmy Smith will collect the first “pick-6″ of his career as the law of averages suggests Palmer will give one back to the Ravens if he throws as much as everyone anticipates.

4. It will be a big day for tight ends for both teams. Raiders tight end Brandon Myers leads his team with 39 receptions, and Baltimore linebackers have struggled to cover tight ends this year. With safeties trying to provide help over the top against Oakland’s speedy receivers Denarius Moore and Darrius Heyward-Bey, Myers should find plenty of openings underneath. Meanwhile, coach John Harbaugh expressed a desire for the tight ends to be more productive and Dennis Pitta said this week he would like to see more opportunities for him and Ed Dickson. The Oakland defense hasn’t had a great deal of difficulty against tight ends this season, but expect offensive coordinator Cam Cameron to implement play-action fakes to get Pitta and Dickson on track to start the second half of the schedule.

5. Baltimore improves to 7-2 with a 34-20 victory over the Raiders to complete the junior varsity portion of the schedule. The Raiders are missing their top two running backs, are traveling to the East Coast to play a 10:00 a.m. game on their regular clocks, and aren’t a good football team anyway. The Baltimore offense has been an elite group in home games this season (32.25 points per game) and faces an underwhelming defense missing veteran defensive tackle Richard Seymour. The Ravens could start slowly if they’re guilty of looking ahead to next week’s meeting with the Steelers, but they’ll ultimately take care of business against Oakland in a fairly comfortable fashion. The schedule gets much more uncomfortable from here as the Ravens will have five of their last seven games against 2011 playoff teams.

OWINGS MILLS, Md. — The Ravens ruled three starters questionable for Sunday’s game against the Oakland Raiders after defensive tackle Haloti Ngata and guards Bobbie Williams and Marshal Yanda returned to the practice field on Friday.

As expected, defensive end Pernell McPhee has been ruled out after missing practices all week and missing last week’s game in Cleveland. He continues to recover from thigh and knee injuries.

Ngata, Williams, and Yanda worked on a limited basis after sitting out workouts on Wednesday and Thursday, improving their chances to see action as the Ravens return to M&T Bank Stadium for the first time in nearly a month.

“They were out there today, so I do think it helped them,” Harbaugh said. “They got a little rest and got healed up a little bit.”

This marks the third straight game that Ngata has been listed as questionable after he was able to play against Houston in Week 7 and against the Browns last Sunday. The big defensive tackle decline an interview after Friday’s practice but admitted earlier this week that he’s been limited with knee and shoulder injuries.

Yanda deemed himself “great” after making it through Friday’s practice. He tweaked his knee and ankle in the 25-15 win over Cleveland.

“I just had to get a flow of things and tempo [practicing] and do it that way. I’ll be good to go.”

Williams said he expected to play Sunday but was taking his left ankle injury — the opposite of the one he had surgery on last year — day by day.

Safety Ed Reed practiced on a limited basis for the second straight day Friday and was listed as probable for Sunday’s game despite dealing with shoulder and knee injuries.

Meanwhile, the Oakland Raiders will be without their top two running backs against Baltimore as Darren McFadden and Mike Goodson were both ruled out with high ankle sprains. Seven-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Richard Seymour was also ruled out with knee and hamstring injuries.

OWINGS MILLS, Md. — After watching Buccaneers rookie running back Doug Martin run for 251 yards against the Raiders in Week 9, Ray Rice tried to downplay what it meant as the Ravens prepare to welcome Oakland to Baltimore on Sunday.

But it’s only human nature for a Pro Bowl running back to be licking his chops after seeing a defense show such vulnerability.

“Obviously, you look at it,” Rice said, “and you do start getting excited when you see it happening.”

Rice was quick to point out reasons why the Raiders front seven allowed Martin to run all over them in a 42-32 loss, pointing to several occasions when Oakland defenders missed tackles that transformed modest gains into lucrative runs. It’s never a one-size-fits-all comparison from week to week in the NFL, but the Ravens have examined how they can exploit Oakland’s 21st-ranked defense in a similar manner as they begin the second half of the regular-season schedule.

The 278 rushing yards allowed by the Raiders in Week 9 pushed their season average to 124.1 per game on the ground after they had only allowed 102.1 rushing yards per contest through their first seven games, which would have landed them in the 11th spot in the league this week. While Rice and the Ravens are likely to test Oakland’s run defense in trying to win their 15th straight home game, they won’t count solely on the ground game to do it.

“When you look at the tape, you understand why those things happened,” coach John Harbaugh said. “They can play a lot better against the run. They do play better against the run. There are four or five plays in there that just went big for them. You see all those other plays where they do a great job, and they’ve got a real physical front.”

Despite an uneven performance in Cleveland last week, the Ravens displayed a renewed commitment to Rice and the running game after criticism of going away from it on several occasions earlier this season. The Pro Bowl back rushed for 98 yards on 25 carries, which wasn’t exactly a sterling day statistically, but the heavy workload could signal offensive coordinator Cam Cameron’s renewed confidence in the back to grind out wins in the second half of the season, especially on the road where the Ravens’ passing game has faltered.

The consummate team player, Rice always says the right thing, but you don’t reach his level of success without wanting the ball in your hands as much as possible. And the numbers prove it’s not a bad strategy as the fifth-year back has run for 622 yards on 131 carries (4.7 yards per attempt), which is 90 more yards than he gained on two fewer carries through the first eight games last season.

“I’ve never been a guy to say, ‘Give me this. Give me that,'” Rice said. “To be able to stick with the run [in Cleveland] no matter what it was, and on first down knowing we were going to dial it, it felt good. It felt good to get my young guy in there, Bernard Pierce, to switch it up. That one-two punch was really working.”

Pierce’s reliability as a rookie will alleviate the pressure on Rice in the second half of the season when the feature back figures to carry a heavier workload anyway, and the rookie from Temple has rushed for 148 yards on 30 carries this season.

Even with the helping hand, Rice figures to become even more important over the season’s final eight games and Cameron has said repeatedly that the Ravens have been cognizant of the running back’s carries in order to keep him fresh later in the season. After carrying only 133 times in the first half of the 2011 season, Rice received 158 attempts in the final eight games and rushed for 832 yards on his way to leading the league in yards from scrimmage.

The Ravens will need a similar herculean effort from Rice as four of their eight second-half games come against top-10 run defenses, including two with the Pittsburgh Steelers. A productive running game will only make things easier for quarterback Joe Flacco, who has struggled on the road this season, as the Ravens attempt to advance to the postseason for the fifth straight season.

“Later in the year as it gets cold, you know you have to run the ball a little bit more and be effective,” Rice said. “But that’s something that we want to grow as. We are going to get better as a run group.”

Ngata continues to deal with shoulder and knee injuries that have limited his playing time, and the three-time Pro Bowl selection failed to register a tackle in the 25-15 win over the Cleveland Browns. The seven-year veteran played at less than 100 percent after McPhee had already been ruled out in Week 9 with knee and thigh injuries, further weakening the defensive line.

Yanda and Williams both suffered injuries in Sunday’s win, but MRI results were favorable for each player. The Ravens’ Pro Bowl right guard is expected to play on Sunday, but Williams’ status will be trickier to gauge considering he’s already dealt with soreness and swelling in a surgically-repaired right ankle.

Wednesday was likely a day off for Reed, who is dealing with a torn labrum in his shoulder and a sore knee.

Meanwhile, the Raiders were without running backs Darren McFadden and Mike Goodson as both are considered question marks for Sunday’s game. Oakland head coach Dennis Allen remained mum on their status in a conference call with the Baltimore media.

Veteran defensive tackle Richard Seymour was also a non-participant for Oakland on Wednesday.

Major League Baseball has announced times for a potential American League East tiebreaker game on Thursday and the AL Wild Card play-in game on Friday.

A potential one-game tiebreaker between the Orioles and New York Yankees would take place at 7:10 p.m. on Thursday night. Of course, the Orioles must defeat the Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday and the Yankees must lose to Boston for this game to be necessary.

The Orioles would hold the tiebreaker over New York for home-field advantage due to their superior record against AL East opponents this season.

The AL Wild Card Game will start at 8:37 p.m. on Friday night. Should the Orioles beat the Tampa Bay Rays in the regular-season finale, they are guaranteed to at least host the wild card play-in game. They would then play the Texas Rangers, who fell in Oakland Wednesday.

If Baltimore falls to the Rays on Wednesday, they would go on the road to play the Rangers in Arlington.

The potential AL East tiebreaker game and the AL Wild Card game are both scheduled to be televised on TBS.

American League Championship Series
Series
Date
Network
Air Time (ET)
ALCS Game One
Saturday, October 13
TBS
TBA
ALCS Game Two
Sunday, October 14
TBS
TBA
ALCS Game Three
Tuesday, October 16
TBS
TBA
ALCS Game Four
Wednesday, October 17
TBS
TBA
ALCS Game Five*
Thursday, October 18
TBS
TBA
ALCS Game Six*
Saturday, October 20
TBS
TBA
ALCS Game Seven*
Sunday, October 21
TBS
TBA

National League Championship Series
Series
Date
Network
Air Time (ET)
NLCS Game One
Sunday, October 14
FOX
TBA
NLCS Game Two
Monday, October 15
FOX
TBA
NLCS Game Three
Wednesday, October 17
FOX
TBA
NLCS Game Four
Thursday, October 18
FOX
TBA
NLCS Game Five*
Friday, October 19
FOX
TBA
NLCS Game Six*
Sunday, October 21
FOX
TBA
NLCS Game Seven*
Monday, October 22
FOX
TBA

World Series
Series
Date
Match-Up
Network
Air Time (ET)
Game One
Wednesday, October 24
AL Champion at NL Champion
FOX
TBA
Game Two
Thursday, October 25
AL Champion at NL Champion
FOX
TBA
Game Three
Saturday, October 27
NL Champion at AL Champion
FOX
TBA
Game Four
Sunday, October 28
NL Champion at AL Champion
FOX
TBA
Game Five*
Monday, October 29
NL Champion at AL Champion
FOX
TBA
Game Six*
Wednesday, October 31
AL Champion at NL Champion
FOX
TBA
Game Seven*
Thursday, November 1
AL Champion at NL Champion
FOX
TBA

The Orioles missed their chance to celebrate at Camden Yards Sunday afternoon, but they have officially landed in the postseason for the first time since the 1997 season.

With the Los Angeles Angels falling to the Texas Rangers in the second game of a doubleheader, the Orioles’ magic number for a postseason berth fell to zero as they have assured themselves of at least a wild card spot in the 2012 postseason.

The Orioles will undoubtedly take a few moments to celebrate as they arrive in St. Petersburg for the final three-game set of the regular season against the Tampa Bay Rays, but they remain focused on winning the AL East as they’re deadlocked with the Yankees in first place.

Should they remain tied with the Yankees, the teams would play a tiebreaker game in Baltimore on Thursday that would be considered the 163rd game of the regular season to determine the division champion. The season series was tied 9-9 between the clubs, but the Orioles own the next tiebreaker to host the game by way of their superior division record. Baltimore owns a 42-27 mark against the AL East while New York is only 38-31 as both clubs play their final three games against AL East opponents.

The Oakland Athletics won Sunday to remain one game behind the Orioles in the wild card race. Oakland holds the tiebreaker over the Orioles via their 5-4 record in the head-to-head series this season, meaning they would host the wild card play-in game on Friday should the Orioles not win the division and the teams finish with the same record.

Regardless of how the final three games of the regular season play out, Orioles fans can take satisfaction in knowing their team is heading to a place it hasn’t been in 15 years.

OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Adding their second 2011 member of the Oakland Raiders on Wednesday, the Ravens signed veteran linebacker Darryl Blackstock to add more depth to the position for training camp.

Reported by Scout.com, the 29-year-old is entering his sixth season and has collected 84 tackles and four sacks in his career playing with Oakland, Cincinnati, and Arizona. He was a third-round selection of the Cardinals in the 2005 draft.

Blackstock spent 2010 in the UFL before playing in Oakland last season. He appeared in 16 games and made one start, making 20 tackles for the Raiders.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Ravens signed linebacker Ricky Brown, who played the last five seasons in Oakland.